A Hitman's Honor
by Echoing Fantasy
Summary: On a hot summer day, Reborn watches the house and a young Tsuna while his parents are out. Things quickly go sour when Tsuna gets snatched. Naturally Reborn doesn't take too kindly to this. Fluffy parental!R27


_A Hitman's Honor_

It was a hot summer's day in Japan, and the Sawada parents had decided to take a trip to the beach – minus one family member. Tsuna had fallen ill a few days ago, and still retained a bit of the sickness in his body. Rather than risk taking him to the beach and him falling sick _again, _Tsuna was going to stay home while Nana and Iemitsu ran to the beach. Normally this wouldn't have happened – Iemitsu wouldn't be so inconsiderate towards his son, and Nana wouldn't leave her baby boy's side until he got better. But Iemitsu had just returned from another year-long venture, and it was his and Nana's anniversary. So Reborn had agreed to babysit – but _only _for today.

"Are you sure you don't mind this, Reborn? Honestly, I'll understand if you don't want to do it," Iemitsu said for the third time as he packed a bag; they would be staying overnight at a hotel near said beach and return the next morning, when the hitman had to leave for another mission.

Reborn smirked, reaching down to pat the fluffy head of his godson – Tsuna positively _adored _Reborn, and aspired to be as strong as the hitman some day, which always made Reborn smile – before turning back to his friend. "Iemitsu, it's starting to sound like you don't _want _me to babysit Tsunayoshi. I assure you, I can handle him." To prove it, he lifted the boy up onto his lap, where Tsuna let out a gleeful laugh and hugged the older male happily. "See? Hardly a challenge." He dodged Tsuna's arm as the boy attempted to grab hold of his curly sideburns – he knew from experience the seven year old had a mean grip on him – and instead bounced his knee, launching Tsuna into the air before coming back down, the boy giggling loudly.

Iemitsu pouted as he watched his son and Reborn get along. Sure, he was happy that Tsuna hadn't been scarred from his and Reborn's first meeting (where Reborn had accidentally scared the tar out of the child) but why did it always seem like Tsuna got along better with Reborn than he did with his own father? He had tried that knee-bounce thing with Tsuna when he was younger, and the boy had screamed bloody murder and run from him. Now Reborn, a man who was _twice _as terrifying as Iemitsu was doing it and things just went hunky-dory. It made him want to swoop in and take Tsuna away, even if doing so meant the death of his eardrums.

Rather than do that, he settled on slamming the suitcase a bit harder than intended, startling Tsuna - who could read people like a book even at his age. Reborn looked reproachfully at the other man, eyebrow raised. "Getting jealous again, Iemitsu? Tsuna won't appreciate that as he gets older, you know."

Iemitsu sulked. "It's not my fault he's adorable."

Reborn scoffed. "Putting that aside, don't you have someone waiting for you? Like I don't know…your _wife?" _

Iemitsu shot up, eyes wide. "Crap!" he hissed. Grabbing the suitcase in one hand, he dashed over and kissed Tsuna on the forehead, babbling something incoherent before making a run for the car outside. The front door slammed shut, and the house was blissfully silent again.

Curious eyes gazed up at the hitman, who was still chuckling at the leader's reaction. "Uncle Reborn? What did daddy just say?"

"I believe he said, 'Bye Tsuna I'll see you later, okay? Be good for Reborn, please.' Either that or he was speaking a very mangled series of Italian curses. Either way, ignore it." Lifting boy and self from the chair, the hitman wandered into the living room, where a bucket of colored wooden blocks and a newspaper sat. "Since it's such a nice day out, why don't we go to the park? You can bring your blocks just so long as you pick them up afterward." The boy nodded happily and squirmed out of his grip before running for shoes and container alike.

Shaking his head at his godson's actions, Reborn picked up his paper and waited until the boy came dashing back to his side, ready to go. "Alright, let's head out."

The park was one of the few areas where the noises of the main town did not reach; it stood just outside the city limits in a heavily wooded area. It wasn't much to look at – a rusty old jungle gym, a slide and a couple of swings. Rather than dash for the equipment however, Tsuna followed Reborn to his usual spot in a sunny patch of ground and waited until Reborn sat down and began reading the paper before sitting behind him, back to back, and uncapping his blocks container. This was the way they had always done it; it was a rule that Reborn had tacked on the first time they went somewhere together and one that Tsuna refused to let go even when Reborn allowed it.

Most parents would have called Tsuna clingy – hell, most children were happy to be off by themselves at that age. But Tsuna wasn't like most kids. Most kids were loud, annoying and generally troublesome. Tsuna was polite, quiet and kind. He didn't go looking for trouble, he didn't _make_ trouble, and he did as he was told. And truthfully, Reborn didn't mind Tsuna staying near him – it made his job easier. Besides, there was something comforting about the boy's warmth against his back.

"Anything new in the news?" Another familiar thing; Tsuna always asked him if there was anything new in the newspaper, since he couldn't quite read it himself yet. Reborn smiled and scanned the headline.

"A ship in the Caribbean sank; three people drowned."

"Who got the blame?"

Reborn paused. "The second in command. According to the captain, who was _supposed _to be steering, the second went rogue and tried to kill him, and capsized the boat in the process." He snorted. "A load of bull."

Tsuna made a noise that he knew as _that's not right. _Along with his quiet demeanor, the youngster had a number of noises he made that all had different meanings. Reborn understood them easily, as did Nana, but Iemitsu kept trying to get Tsuna to open up. Reborn snorted quietly as he turned a page. Iemitsu didn't seem to understand that his son was doing fine by himself. Yes, he was a bit quieter than most kids, but that was only because he was doing everything in his own way, and taking his time. There was nothing wrong with that – hell, it showed he had a sharp sense of survival and keen instinct; two things needed by a professional hitman to make it through a day.

A period of comfortable silence came over godson and godfather then, as Reborn continued to read the paper and Tsuna continued trying to build the castle he would one day live in (Reborn had once shown him the amount of money he made in a day's worth of work, and Tsuna had sworn that he would build himself a castle once he got enough money to do so, and was kind enough to invite Reborn – who would be retired by that time – to come live in it with him) with the blocks given to him by his mother.

After a point however, Tsuna saw something blue out of the corner of his eye and looked up from his plans to find a blue and black bird hopping around. Curious, he nudged Reborn. "Uncle Reborn? What's that bird there?" he pointed it out. The hitman paused in his article to take a look.

"Huh, that's a new one. You don't see a lot of bluejays around this area."

"You think if I followed it I could find out where its nest is?" Tsuna asked, already climbing to his feet. Reborn chuckled, not unkindly.

"I suppose you could try. Just don't try to take any of the eggs, okay? You'll get your eyes pecked out, and I don't want to have a conversation with your father that begins with 'oh I'm so sorry but your son seems to have gotten his eyes pecked out by a bird while under my watch, would you like a glass of water'?" He smiled as Tsuna erupted into giggles, tears springing up in the corners of his eyes.

"Don't worry, Uncle Reborn, I won't!"

"Alright then. Away with you. And don't go any further than the forested area! Come when I call, you got that?" he hollered in an afterthought as Tsuna scrambled away in pursuit of the bird. The jay, seeing the boy running towards it, took off in the forest. Soon both boy and bird were out of sight, and Reborn sighed, going back to his reading.

Tsuna had quite a bit of stamina for a seven year old. He ran after the bird as fast as he could, eyes to the sky, narrowly avoiding trees that appeared in front of him and stumbling over the roots that tried to trip him. If he _did _hit a root and fall, he quickly scrambled back onto his feet and continued after the bird, determined to follow the avian to its location. The fact that Reborn had called it a new one was all the inspiration the boy needed in order to complete the task. As the edge of the forest neared however, Tsuna realized that if the bird didn't land soon he was going to have to call his hunt off; Reborn had given him explicit instructions not to wander beyond the forest's edge. The bird seemed to realize that, and moved out of the forest and up into the sky, soon nothing more than a pinprick of black.

Sighing in disappointment, the brunette turned around with the intention of heading back to Reborn and playing with his block some more. When something cold touched his leg, he yelped and moved back, expecting to see some sort of ugly lizard clinging to his leg. But it wasn't a lizard; it was a bouncy ball. Staring at it, Tsuna looked around to see who had dropped it. Surely it had to belong to someone? Picking it up, he turned it over, looking for a name. Reborn was good with names – surely he would be able to locate whoever it belonged to?

But before he could get it to Reborn, a voice called out, "Little boy, is that my ball you have?"

From out of the foliage stepped an adult man, about Reborn's size, with a scar on his left cheek. Looking up at him, Tsuna realized that this must be the man the ball belonged to. He hurried forward, offering it up shyly. The man smiled and patted him on the head. "Why thank you, little boy."

Tsuna never knew what happened next, only that one minute he was handing the ball over and the next moment a cloth was being pressed over his face and he was inhaling some sort of stuff that made him sleepy. Remembering Reborn's teachings about self-defense, he let loose with his elbow and fist, connecting and making the man drop the cloth. With the cloth gone, the boy gathered as much air as he had left and bellowed, _**"REBORN!"**_

And the promptly passed out.

* * *

"_**REBORN!"**_

Tsuna's scream had him up and running in an instant, paper forgotten. His eyes sought, heart racing as he cocked his gun, semi-automatic eager to taste the blood of those who were harming Tsuna.

The sound of a car starting up drove him past the forest, just in time to see a man throw Tsuna into the back of a car and the door slam shut. Reborn raised the gun and began firing, some part of him wild with the knowledge that Tsuna was in danger, that the boy trusted him more than life itself, and if he didn't save the boy he would never be forgiven by _anyone, _not the Ninth and surely not Iemitsu.

The car drove off in a haze of bullets, one of the windows riddled with holes and the tang of blood in the air. Reborn wasted no time in calling Colonnello, and within moments a chopper arrived, the blond at the controls.

Hopping inside, Reborn let a predatory grin spread over his features as he reloaded his gun. God help the fools who had taken Tsunayoshi from him.

* * *

Tsuna, for his part, was absolutely _terrified. _Not only because he was being held at gunpoint by some strange men that kept screaming at one another – no, he was also terrified because he'd disobeyed Reborn, however unwillingly. He'd gone past the forest, and he knew that once Reborn caught up to them, he would be furious. The boy didn't want to offer up any excuses – Reborn hated people who tried to make up excuses when the blame was clearly theirs – but he wasn't so sure that this was his fault, per say. After all, he had just been giving the man his ball back – Reborn often told him that politeness was underrated, whatever that meant – how was he supposed to know those guys had been kidnappers?

Well, whether it was good or bad, the only thing Tsuna could do now was sit back and wait for Reborn to find and punish him. Hopefully Reborn wouldn't be too upset…

The van suddenly jerked to a stop outside an old warehouse. One of the men grabbed hold of Tsuna's arm and yanked him from the van, Tsuna nearly falling flat on his face as he struggled to keep up. He assumed the men would be taking him to the warehouse, but instead they strode _past _it, behind it to where a path led into another forest that curved up onto the top of a mountain.

_Hiiiieee! We're going all the way up there? _Tsuna had a deathly fear of heights – one that only seemed to mysteriously vanish whenever Reborn was around. But then again Reborn was a powerful man, unlike these mooks here, who seemed to just want to get him up the mountain as fast as possible. With the one man holding his arm and the others with guns behind him, muzzles pressed into Tsuna's back, the youngster found he had no choice but to move up at the man's command, going higher and higher into the mountain. He didn't want to go up there, not without Reborn by his side, but then again he didn't want to die either.

In the end he was half-dragged up the mountaintop, and then unceremoniously thrown to the ground. Three of the men separated from the group (which consisted of seven total men) and came over to him. Scurrying back against the wall of the mountain, he listened, curled into a ball, as the men argued and bickered back and forth in a language he didn't understand. Come to think of it, it almost sounded like that language Reborn had spoken to his father before when they were talking about Adult Matters and didn't want him to hear. The difference, the seven-year-old noted, was that Reborn's words were always fluent and beautiful to listen to, whereas these guys made it sound choppy and annoying.

_Reborn should give them language lessons, _Tsuna thought, rubbing his ears.

After three or four more minutes of loud bangs, arguments and general craziness, something happened. Before, two of the guys had been yelling back at forth at one another – it was the same guys who had been yelling earlier in the car – pointing at Tsuna, apparently trying to decide what to do with him now that they had captured him. Tsuna could only guess that they had different ideas about what to do with him and were unable to agree. Maybe it was because they were annoyed by one another, or because they knew they were being hunted down by the greatest hitman alive, but one of the men pulled a gun from his jacket and shot the other. The noise made Tsuna jerk, and the sight of blood leaving the man's lips and front made his eyes go wide.

And then the survivor turned to Tsuna.

And suddenly there was a whole new kind of fear racing through his blood, freezing it in his tracks and making his heart stop in his chest. As the man walked forward, uttering something in that despicable language, Tsuna tried to move back but couldn't, and realized that _he wanted Reborn _by his side and he needed him here now because he was scared and he older man could make these people _go away_-

The sound of rapid gunfire suddenly went off, and Tsuna screamed as the men in front of him were mowed down like they were nothing. Chopper blades appeared over the edge of the cliff, turning into a helicopter that held Reborn and a strange blond man at the wheels. Tsuna yelled with joy upon seeing the hitman; Reborn was here now, and everything would be okay.

Reborn hopped down off the chopper, one hand on his head to hold his hat while the other held a gun not unlike the attackers were waving around. At his descent one of the remaining attackers yelled something, and the bullets went flying. Reborn dodged them all though, and somehow managed to slip between them to grab Tsuna and get them a bit further away from the group.

The gunfire halted as the men tried to find them, while Reborn took the time to reload and Tsuna grasp the front of his coat and cried. Reborn didn't bother trying to shush him or stop him because he knew that Tsuna was still too young to understand just how strong he was, how strong they both were and that this event would make the boy stronger in the long run.

"R-r-reborn! You're _hurt!" _And sure enough, a spot of red on his shoulder was rapidly growing by the second. Reborn glanced at it and felt no pain, but he knew Tsuna was spooked by it; his face had gone white and his eyes were getting wider by the second. To reassure the boy, he pulled Tsuna close, hugging him. "It's alright; it's only a small wound."

"B-but you could _die!"_ Tsuna blubbered, devastated by the idea of his godfather dying in order to protect him. Reborn chuckled.

"Trust me, Tsuna. I won't die." Something in the hitman's words made the boy believe him, although he wasn't sure what it was.

Tsuna sniffled, his grip loosening a bit. "P-promise?"

Reborn smiled, his eyes momentarily softening as he patted the brunette's fluffy head. "I promise."

Footsteps came from nearby; signaling their time together was up. Reborn paused, trying to think of a way for Tsuna to avoid seeing this bloodshed – he was already scarred enough as it was. An idea came, and he lifted his fedora to pull it low over Tsuna's eyes, keeping his hand there to prevent Tsuna from pulling it off.

"I'll be right back, okay? Don't take that hat off, and don't dwell on what you hear. We'll be home soon." And with that last parting Reborn was gun, rushing off into the brush and into the fray. Tsuna curled up, hands shaking on top of the fedora. He couldn't explain it, but having Reborn's hat made him feel calm…like it was the actual promise Reborn had made instead of the words.

So he stayed like that, gripping the hat as the gunfire erupted around him, screams of rage and pain filling the air, some in that unknown language, but many more in the language Tsuna knew. _Don't take that hat off._ No matter how curious he was, he wouldn't disobey Reborn. He trusted the man too much, and liked to think Reborn trusted him too, although he wasn't sure if that would be the case after today.

_Don't dwell on what you hear. _The sounds running through his head would have been enough to give him nightmares, but Tsuna shoved them aside in favor of humming to himself and gripping the hat more tightly – it might be slightly squished when Reborn got it back.

_We'll be home soon. _A warm hand touched his shoulder, and Tsuna shot up, shrieking in panic. "Whoa whoa, easy kora!" A new voice, familiar in a way, stopped his panic. The blond man from the chopper grinned down at him, gaze warm despite the circumstances. "You're Tsuna, right kora?"

"Y-yes." He was still shy around strangers…or semi-strangers in this case. "Y-you're Uncle Colonnello, right? R-reborn had me meet you."

"Yep, that's me, kora! Hey, Reborn asked me to take you to the chopper while we wait for him to finish up. So you wanna come with me?" He held out his arms in an invitation for a hug, which Tsuna gladly took. Then Colonnello rose, hunched over to protect him from any shrapnel, and ran through the area they had just entered, past screaming enemies and bullets – some of which grazed him but never harmed Tsuna. The entire time the little boy was following Reborn's orders to keep the fedora on and not think about what was going on around him.

By the time they reached the chopper the bullets had stopped and there was no noise anywhere, save for Colonnello's soft breathing. Not even the animals were acting up. Colonnello put Tsuna in the chopper before sitting up front. Moments after that Reborn entered the clearing, his shoulder bleeding heavily and his suit covered in blood. Tsuna was kind enough to wait until he got in the chopper before grabbing onto him and hugging him tightly. Reborn chuckled and took his fedora back, placing it on his head. "You okay?"

"Are you hurt?" Tsuna countered, looking pointedly at the blood on his suit. Reborn, realizing where he was looking, shook his head.

"My shoulder is the only thing."

"Good." He snuggled against the hitman, Colonnello coughing, his face pink as he tried not to let the grin on his face show. Reborn glared at him anyway, but softened as he reached down and rubbed Tsuna's back. The chopper took off, Tsuna holding tightly to his godfather the entire time.

They managed to make it back before Tsuna's parents returned, and Reborn took the time to reassure both himself and Tsuna that he was still very much alive. Despite Reborn's orders, Tsuna plopped himself down on a stool and watched avidly as Reborn removed the bullet from his shoulder and covered the wound with gauze. Tsuna was still too young to know about the Flame abilities, and Nono had forbidden anyone to tell the boy until he was older.

Once his wound was patched up and Tsuna assured he wasn't going to bleed to death, the man attempted to make dinner for them. Key word being "attempted".

"Tsunayoshi, I'm fine, I can still cook."

"You're hurt, and Mama says you're not supposed to move around when you're hurt." Hands on his hips, the defiant boy stared up at his amused godfather in a way that was reminiscent of Nana. "Go sit down. We can order dinner for tonight."

Reborn easily could have won the argument, but chose not to, knowing that if he didn't Tsuna would simply wait until his next visit to pamper him even more. The boy was protective like that. "As you say." Good thing he already had the takeout place they both liked on speed dial. What could he say, when he spoiled Tsuna, he always made sure to do an ace job of it.

Two cartons of kung pao chicken, beef teriyaki and vegtable rice later, Tsuna snuggled up to Reborn on the recliner chair, a blanket over his body, and promptly fell asleep. Reborn murmured an unheard goodnight, sliding down a bit, tilting his fedora down to cover his eyes. Today had been exhausting without a doubt, and even the greatest hitman in the world needed some downtime after a rush like that.

And if the sight Nana and Iemitsu finally came home to was of Reborn curled protectively over his godson on the recliner, and they "conveniently" forgot to wake him up and forced him to have breakfast with them the next morning, well, that was alright too he supposed.


End file.
